1894 - Birth of René Paul Fonck, French aviator who ended WWI as the top Allied fighter ace, and when all succeeding conflicts are also considered, Fonck still holds the title of "all-time Allied Ace of Aces". He received confirmation for 75 victories (72 solo and three shared) out of 142 claims. Taking into account his probable claims, Fonck's finally could conceivably be nearer 100 or above.

1905 - Birth of Elizabeth Muriel Gregory "Elsie" MacGill, known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes", world's 1st female aircraft designer. She worked as an aeronautical engineer during the Second World War and did much to make Canada a powerhouse of aircraft construction during her years at Canada Car and Foundry (CC&F)

1918 - Attacked by German planes, bomber pilot Alan McLeod is strafed from below: Three bullets strike him and others puncture his fuel tank, setting his plane on fire. Lt McLeod climbs onto the lower left wing and steers the plane to a crash landing between the front lines. He pulls his gunner out of the wreck into a fox hole, from which they are rescued. He was awarded the Victoria Cross.

1945 - Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins. The mining runs were made by individual B-29 Superfortresses at night at moderately low altitudes, Radar providing mine release information. 1,000 parachute-retarded influence mines with magnetic and acoustic exploders were initially dropped, followed up with many more, including models with water pressure displacement exploders, as well.

1945 - Death of Roy Maxwell "Peter" Drummond, Australian WWI flying ace and high ranking WWII officer. His plane, a B-24 Liberator nicknamed Commando that was formerly the personal transport of Winston Churchill, disappeared near the Azores

1969 - Launch of Mariner 7, Mission's goals were to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars during close flybys, in order to establish the basis for future investigations, particularly those relevant to the search for extraterrestrial life, and to demonstrate and develop technologies required for future Mars missions.

1977 - Death of Oliver Campbell Bryson, British WWI flying ace, one of the British aviators ordered to Russia in 1919 to support the White Army in its counter-revolution against the Bolsheviks. He served in the RAF until 1943.

1977 - Tenerife airport disaster: a collision involved 2 Boeing 747 (KLM Flight 4805 and Pan Am Flight 1736) passenger aircraft on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport (now known as Tenerife North Airport) on the Spanish island of Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. With 583 fatalities, the crash remains the deadliest accident in aviation history. Taking off in heavy fog on the airport's only runway, the KLM flight crashed into the top of the Pan Am aircraft backtaxiing in the opposite direction. The Pan Am had followed the backtaxiing of the KLM aircraft, under the direction of air traffic control, and the KLM's flight crew had been aware of Pan Am backtaxiing behind them on the same runway. Despite lack of visual confirmation due to the fog the KLM captain thought that Pan Am had cleared the runway and so attempted to take off without further clearance to do so.

1994 - 1st flight of The Eurofighter Typhoon, twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft, designed and built by a consortium of three companies: Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, and EADS; working through a holding company, Eurofighter GmbH,